Announcement

Socks for Heroes

For those of you new to the program, this outreach drive was started about 5 years ago to honor one of our own. Donald Hogan was a student of Tesoro High School graduating in 2007. He and his family were also residents of San Clemente. He joined the Marine Corps and deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 with his unit, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. While on patrol searching for an IED, he saw an insurgent pull a trigger wire to detonate an IED. Reacting immediately, he pushed one Marine out of the way, and placed his body between the IED and the rest of his squad, sheltering them from the blast. As a result, Donald traded his life to protect the Marines he served with. For his bravery and dedication, the Marine Corps posthumously awarded him the Navy Cross, the Nation’s second highest decoration for Valor. To honor this young hero, San Clemente and Tesoro High Schools are holding their third annual sock drive to benefit Americans still fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East through the “Socks for Heroes” project. The goal is to collect 10,000 pairs of black or brown cotton athletic crew socks to be sent to Marine and Army Units still serving in-country for the holidays. The winner of the drive will be announced at half time THISWEEK at the San Clemente/Tesoro Football game! Since the beginning of this annual event, both schools have collected enough socks and donations to ship over 35,000 pairs of socks to Marine and Army units serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.